Australia: Bondi Baby! Sydney

Bondi is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Australia and is home to one of the most famous beaches in the world – Bondi beach. Bondi itself is 4 miles east of Sydney although it feels a lot further. No matter how touristy Sydney is there is still a high number of ‘corporates’ dressed immaculately in their suit and ties so it’s bizarre to see so much flesh on show just a short way out of a major commercial city.

Bondi Pavilion, Australia

I imagine there are numerous ways in which you can get from the CBD across to Bondi, I personally never looked into this as we already had tickets for the Sydney Hop On, Hop Off bus. Don’t get me wrong I love walking places and taking in the sites along the way but when short on time or visiting somewhere which is out of the city. This journey would have in reality taken us over 90 minutes to walk and to be honest, I was super excited to get there I couldn’t wait that long. Plus in my opinion, the bus is great value for money. We had a 48-hour ticket (for approx £32 each) which allowed us to jump on and off the bus as many times as we liked at any of the 34 stops on the 2 routes it operates – one of which was of course Bondi. Even if you do not get off at any of the stops the trip journey itself is worth it as you may catch sight of things that you would have missed.

Street in Sydney, Australia

Now I can imagine that on a nice day Bondi beach is packed at the best of times let alone on Labour Day Bank Holiday which is celebrated on the first Monday of October every year in New South Wales. Needless to say, there was not a grain of sand to be seen as everyone had descended on the beach. I can’t say that I blame them, who wouldn’t? 30 degrees and a bit of sun and surf, it’s the stuff dreams are made of – well they are if you are a pasty girl from England! Needless to say, the flip-flops (or thongs in Australia!) were soon kicked off and we had to stop ourselves running across the beach like children and into the water.

We walked the full length of the beach at the water’s edge taking in this alien outdoors way of life people take for granted in Australia (I’m only jealous). Men, women and children of all ages sunbathing, swimming, surfing, playing with a bat and ball……it was Bondi where it hit me that we only had a few days left in Australia and I really didn’t want to go home. Here it was sunny, the people are friendly and you can come to the beach the majority of the year. Not like in England where the window of opportunity is precisely 3 1/2 days and on most beaches you find used nappies rather than people frolicking in the surf and enjoying themselves (*sigh*).

Bondi mural, Australia

Bondi is not a ‘beautiful’ beach (and not horrible by any stretch of the imagination) but it is a famous one and in my opinion if in Sydney somewhere you must visit just to say you’ve been. Even if you’re not a beach lover why not take a trip, get a smoothie or a juice from one of the many shops on the beach front and sit and watch the world go by? And if you do decide to take the hop on, hop off bus there – they depart every 30 – 45 minutes.

Vicky & Chris

Thanks for joining us (Vicky & Chris, a married couple from Yorkshire, England) as we Eat, Sleep, Love and Travel our way around the world! Between us, we have been to 75 countries (long may the list grow!)

We have been travelling together since January 2007 when we took our first trip only two weeks from our first meeting to Florence, Italy.